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July 19, 2012 MINUTES WEST MEMPHIS CITY COUNCIL July 19, 2012 A regular meeting of the West Memphis City Council was held on Thursday, July 19th at 1:30 p.m. in the City Council Chambers at City Hall, 205 S. Redding,West Memphis, Arkansas. Invocation was given by Pastor David Moose. Mayor Johnson called the meeting to order at 1:30 p.m. Cindy Greenwood, Sr. Deputy City Clerk called the roll. Those present were: Mayor William H. Johnson, City Attorney David Peeples, City Treasurer Frank Martin and Councilors, James Pulliaum, Ramona Taylor, Herman Coleman, Willis Mondy, James Holt, and Lorraine Robinson. Those absent were: Tracy Catt, Marco McClendon, Taz Tyrone, and Phillip Carter Quorum being present, Mayor Johnson proceeded with the meeting. MINUTES Councilman Pulliaum moved, seconded by Councilwoman Robinson to dispense with the reading of the minutes of July 5, 2012 City Council meeting, and approve them as submitted. Upon voice vote, the voting was unanimous. OLD BUSINESS NEW BUSINESS Mayor Johnson gave the 2011 State of the City address. (See attached) COMMITTEE REPORTS Airport Commission: Councilor Robinson reported Finance Director Frank Martin attended the meeting and briefed Commissioners on the 2011 audit. He also informed them that there will be an unbudgeted increase in health insurance premiums beginning July 1. Stacy Morris reported that repairs to 3 expansion joints on Taxiway A should be completed next month. City Attorney David Peeples prepared a draft Ground Lease. A meeting was set for July 30 to review the lease by a subcommittee appointed by Chairman Pike. Stacey Morris and Lynda Avery met with a cell tower representative to review potential sites for a 150'tower that will provide the service needed without impacting airport operations. Park Commission: Park Director Lorenzo Parker gave an update on a number of projects. He reported the upgrades at Horton and Grimsley Parks are about 99% done. The new playground equipment is in place and they are going to put park benches in. He said there is little of the grant money left over and they were going to see if they could use it to paint the pavilions at both parks. He said there are a lot of things they would like to do but they have to spend so much of the budget on maintenance it is hard to spend money on improvements and stay within the restraints of the park budget. Tournament Organizer Terry Howe attended the Park Commission meeting and informed the Commissioners that he gets a lot of feedback from teams that come here to play and the first thing he always hears is the condition of the bathrooms. They are out of date and in bad shape. He also said awnings covering at least some of the bleachers were needed. He also addressed the issue of some recent remarks about him being from Mississippi and not hiring locals. He reported that three umpires were from Crittenden County, teenagers from here were working the concession stand and there has already been 200 teams come through the ballpark. Mr. Parker explained since we contracted with Mr. Howe, more and more tournaments are coming here from Mississippi, Tennessee, and Louisiana. There are 12 members per team, their families come and it is estimated each family spends approximately $150.00 per family eating and spending the night. This calculates that each tournament brings around $360,000 to our local economy. City Engineer Phillip Sorrell said they all appreciate the work that has been done to bring these tournaments to the city and we see that it is growing. He said that if we are looking down the road and seeing this as a long term commitment to building this up, then maybe it's time to make a serious investment in making some real improvements that will pay off in the long run. ANNOUNCEMENTS Sr. Deputy City Clerk introduced the Crittenden County Adult Leadership Group and explained they visited City Hall today and learned about city finances, the new District Court laws, and the City Council meetings. Councilor Taylor announced that The Farmer's Market is being held today between 1pm and 5pm. Mayor Johnson announced Business After Hours will be held from 5:00 until 7:00 today at Southland Gaming & Racing. Having no further business to come before the City Council, Councilor Taylor moved, second by Councilor Coleman to adjourn. Upon voice vote, the voting was unanimous. The meeting adjourned at 2:00 p.m. rot- PASSED and APPROVED this day of August, 2012. WILLIAM H. JOHNSON, MAYOR ATTEST: PHIL RA, CITY CLERK Minutes prepared by: Cindy Greenwood, Sr. Deputy City Clerk 2011 STATE OF THE CITY MESSAGE 2011 was another difficult year. Our sales tax decreased of 1 .5% was offset by increased contributions from Southland Racing and Gaming. After accruing revenues, as required by State Auditors, we finished in the black again. This is mainly due to our employees watching very closely how they spend your money. We were able to buy police cars, without incurring any debt, because of the money found by our Narcotics Officers. We were able to buy a new fire truck, without incurring any debt, because of our savings in our Capital Purchases, by taking care of our older outdated fire trucks and saving some of our turn back money to cover our purchase. We all endured a horrific storm last May, that caused the City over a million dollars in damage. We received over $488,000 from our insurance coverage and over $443,000 from FEMA. Because of the hard work done by Paul Luker and his Department, we received an Energy Grant that helped with some remodeling of our City Hall, our Civic Auditorium, and Municipal Court Building. Like most grants, it didn't cover everything, but we were able to cover our matching funds and all additional expenses, without incurring any debt. We do see signs of our sales tax collections trying to get back a growth mode position, instead of the decreasing amounts we've had to endure the last three plus years. Budget for the General Fund, Street, Sanitation, Utility, Library, Airport, River Port Departments along with the Advertising & Promotions, including the Civic Auditorium, were in excess of 58 million dollars. This does not include the budgets for Fire & Police Pensions that we administer, along with the Main Street & Industrial Park, Emergency 911, and Metropolitan Planning Organization Programs. Then we have additional programs such as the Shelter Plus Care, Home and Community Development Programs that add to value of our City. One of the major changes for our employees was changing insurance carriers and going to a fully funded plan for a self insured one. The rising medical costs continue to plague us all, in fact we are bidding our Health Insurance coverage's again this year. With 400 employees and over 100 retirees, the raising costs of State Funded Retirement Programs, raising medical costs, raising operating costs, such as fuel and the inability to give our employees a raise for a 4th consecutive year, will make this another challenging year, but the positive aspect of this is that no employee was terminated nor did any associate suffer from a salary reduction. The Planning and Development Department issued ten (10) permits for new construction of commercial and industrial developments, along with seven (7) permits for additions to existing commercial buildings. Additionally the department issued another fifty-six (56) permits to re-model existing commercial buildings. The total estimated cost of commercial/industrial projects for the year was $10,631,817. Single family housing starts were low at four (4), however eighty-four (84) permits were issued to re- model existing homes. The City demolished nineteen (19) substandard and vacant structures. The Community Development Department oversaw the rehabilitation of fifty-nine (59) single-family homes utilizing the volunteer labor of the World Changers and Ozark Missions groups. These homes are owner-occupied by elderly/low income and or handicapped individuals. The City is continuing its relationship with Memphis Area Transit Authority to provide bus service in West Memphis with connections to Memphis. Ridership continues to increase and averages more than 20,000 riders a month with a grand total of more than two million (2,000,000) riders since the service began in 1999. The second phase of the Main Street façade program got underway. This program uses U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grant Funding to repair and update facades of buildings in the Main Street District. These upgrades help make the area more attractive which helps in the recruitment of new businesses to the district. The City received a $545,000 grant from the Arkansas Department of Energy to upgrade lighting and HVAC equipment for City Hall, Civic Center, and the Municipal Court buildings. These grant funds paid for needed upgrades and increased efficiency thus saving future tax dollars without impacting the general fund. The Gateway Project, an effort to beautify major entryways into West Memphis and along the interstates with lighting and landscaping received $310,000 in grant funding from Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department. This phase of the project, due to be completed by the end of the year, will focus on the area around the new visitors center at 7th Street and Interstate 40/55 and will primarily consist of heavy tree plantings at the 7th Street interchange and additional LED lighting along the interstate. The grant match and maintenance of the landscaping are being funded by the Advertising and Promotion. Economic Development — Awesome Products continued their expansion efforts with the opening of their new 450,000 sq. ft. facility on 7th and their acquisition of a 200,000 sq ft facility on N. 7th. The expansions also included the hiring of over 75 new employees. The citizens passed an ED tax in November that allows the City to offer incentives to prospective industries. It was instrumental the following month in West Memphis becoming the number one site for a $70 million facility. The strip shopping center, one of a few new retal projects completed in the Mi-South in 2011, open with over 90% occupancy. Virtually all of the businesses were new to West Memphis. West Memphis got a first class franchise with Pappa John's Pizza opened. I can only attempt to express my appreciation and admiration for our associates who continue to perform in a positive manner despite difficult circumstances. We have not curtailed any services despite our rising cost particularly in fuel and repairs. We have no short term debt as we have paid for all assets purchased (auto & fire trucks), in addition in 2011 we retired previous debt and 10 police cars and a fire truck. We have three (3) small bond issues outstanding one for the port, one for the parks and one for the Airport. We have one additional issue from the Utility from which the funds have not been disbursed. Even in difficult times your City is in solid financial condition. Our most significant need is to accumulate additional operating capital in order that we are able to operate in a professional business like manner.